The Past, Present, and Future of Pentesting

Pentesting, or penetration testing, is a cybersecurity measure that fights hackers by exposing the hacker’s possible entry points, therefore allowing defenders the close them before they’re able to find them.

History of Pentesting

People began to notice the possibilities of system security threats in the 1960s, giving rise to the first work of pentesting, done by teams of hackers dubbed as “Tiger Teams”. Unlike today where pentesting is widely used among all system owners, these teams were employed only for government and military owned systems. For instance, the Navy would employ these teams to find vulnerabilities on terrorist attacks on naval bases.

Starting in the 1990s, however, the work of these “Tiger Teams” began to be urged as more widely important to any system owner. It was at this time the work was commonly termed as “ethical hacking”. By the 2000s, penetration testing became a widespread discipline, the Penetration Testing Execution Standard (PTES) being the first pentesting service provider in 2003.

Pentesting Today

Since the very first pentesting providers in 2003, hackers have evolved. With computers becoming more and more involved and important in our everyday lives, the damage a hacker can do more and more dangerous. Our workfaces and tools have become largely remote, increasing the opportunities and potential risks that hackers can tap into.

Hackers will swiftly grasp at these new avenues as cybercrime costs are estimated to grow 15 percent per year. That is why penetration testing is even more essential to this day than ever.

RidgeBot and Pentesting Today

Today, pentesting is insufficient in the current cyber defense state. While being one of the most widely used and common security practices, according to Seth Adler from the Cybersecurity Hub, “It is mostly performed manually by 3rd party service providers and has evolved very slowly in the past decade.”

Being both time and talent dependent, not to mention costly, pentesting is in desperate need for a new angle to keep up today’s rapidly expanding cyberspace.

Ridge Security is tackling this challenge with RidgeBot, a fully automated penetration testing solution that employs AI to swiftly sweep systems. Automation cuts the both time and talent dependent aspects of pentesting, therefore also cutting the costs and the opportunities for hackers to compromise a system.

Learn more on how Ridge Security is advancing the world of modern day pentesting through RidgeBot; And how RidgeBot can swiftly and cost-effectively help you protect your systems today.